(WRITER, she/her) is a playwright whose plays advocate for a shared humanity. Plays include How to Gild An Eagle (Finalist, Columbia@Roundabout New Play Reading Series; Semi-Finalist, National Playwrights Conference; Semi-Finalist, Athena Project); Return to Fall (Finalist, Blue Ink Playwriting Award; Semi-Finalist, National Playwrights Conference; Semi-Finalist, Bay Area Playwrights Festival); To Raqqa With Love (International Human Rights Arts Festival 2021); Cost (Climate Change Theatre Action Commission 2021); Being in Time (International Human Rights Arts Festival 2019); How Did the Cat Get So Fat? (nominated Best Play, Life! Theatre Awards, Singapore); Yusof (Festival Commission, Pesta Raya, Singapore). For five years, Zizi was the Artistic Director of Teater Ekamatra (Singapore), successfully breaking into the mainstream during her tenure, tripling audiences and garnering multiple awards. She received the Young Artist Award from National Arts Council of Singapore for extraordinary contributions to Singapore theatre. Currently, an Instructor of Drama at Syracuse University she received her MFA from Columbia University, where she was also a fellow of the International Fellows Program at the Columbia School of International and Public Affairs.
(DIRECTOR, she/her)is thrilled to be back at WP Theater working with Zizi and Kristin on this beautiful play. She is a New York based director of primarily new work for the stage. Off Broadway credits include Sell/Buy/Date, Regrets and Pumpgirl (Manhattan Theatre Club); Indian Summer, Fly By Night, Great God Pan, After the Revolution (Callaway Award), Essential Self Defense (Playwrights Horizons); Arlington (Vineyard); In a Dark Dark House (MCC Theater); Something You Did (Primary Stages); The Talls (Second Stage); Core Values (Ars Nova); Orange Flower Water and Stone Cold Dead Serious (Edge Theater), and EVE-olution (Cherry Lane). Selected Regional credits include: Good Boys (Pasadena Playhouse), Sell Buy Date and Rabbit Hole (Garland Award) and The Violet Hour (Old Globe), After the Revolution, Not Waving and King Stag (Williamstown Theatre Festival), Vera Laughed and Get What You Need (NYS&F), and Diary of Anne Frank (Papermill). Carolyn has received the Boris Sagal and Bill Foeller Fellowships from Williamstown, a Drama League Directing Fellowship and the Seldes-Kanin Fellowship from the Theatre Hall of Fame. She is a graduate of Dartmouth College and the mother of two daughters.
(PRODUCER, she/her) served as the Director of New Works at Seattle Repertory Theatre, and, prior to that post, the Literary Manager at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, among others. She has freelanced as an artist with the O’Neill Theater Center, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Play On Shakespeare, Arizona Theatre Company, Trinity Repertory Theatre, Primary Stages, Classical Stage Company, the Playwrights’ Center, Dallas Theater Center, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Guthrie Theater, Jungle Theater, Village Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, Goodman Theatre, The Lark, The Kennedy Center, The Old Globe, the Indiana Repertory Theatre, Cleveland Play House, Victory Gardens Theater, American Theatre Company, Collaboraction, Rivendell Theatre Ensemble, New Repertory Theatre, Actors’ Shakespeare Project, Galway Arts Festival, Teatro Luna, Teatro Vista (artistic associate), Steep Theatre Company (ensemble), A Red Orchid Theatre, and Shakespeare & Company (Artistic Consultant), among others. She is an Assistant Professor, Dramatic Literature & Dramaturgy at Boston University and holds a Ph.D. from The University of Texas at Austin. She is a 2021 recipient of a Fulbright.
– born in London and raised in Lebanon- is an actress based in New York City. She trained in Method acting for one year and in the Meisner technique for two years at the Terry Knickerbocker Studio, where she was honored as class speaker for her graduating class. Raised by filmmaker-parents, Hana knew she belonged in the world of film from an early age. She discovered her passion for acting in Beirut on the set of her father’s film, In The Shadows of the City (2000), where she made her feature film debut at the age of five. At 21, Hana had a formative experience acting in 3000 Nights (2015), filmed in Jordan, where she also worked closely as an advisor to the director. Since moving to New York, Hana has starred in the acclaimed short film Salam (2018), which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, and has appeared on the Emmy Award-winning show Ramy (2020). She also has leading roles in the Netflix Original show Jinn (2018) and the TV show Medinah (2017). Hana is grateful to be working with WP and these incredible women on bringing this beautiful play to life.
is a bicoastal actress and thrilled to be working with WP. A three-time Drama Desk Award nominee, she is passionate about new works and has developed with many Broadway and Off-Broadway companies. Recent theater highlights include: American Fast (Denver Center New Play Summit, Marti Lyons), Wintertime (Berkeley Rep, Les Waters) Seascape (A.C.T, Pam Mackinnon, BACC nomination), Sweat (A.C.T., Loretta Greco), We Swim We Talk We Go To War, (Golden Thread Productions, Evren Odchikin), Swimmers (Marin Theatre Company, Mike Donahue; Theatre Bay Area Award nomination), No One Is Forgotten (Rattlestick, Winter Miller) and Water by the Spoonful (The Old Globe, directed by Edward Torres). Film + TV credits include: The Surrogate, FBI, For Life, 13 Reasons Why, Succession, Danny DeVito’s Curmudgeons She is a proud graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of The Arts and a member of LAByrinth Theater Company
is an actor, writer and Founding Artistic Director of the Obie-winning company Noor Theatre, dedicated to the work of theater artists of Middle Eastern descent. Lameece has appeared in several regional and off-Broadway theater productions, including The Fever Chart and Stuff Happens (Drama Desk Award, Outstanding Ensemble) at the Public Theatre, The Black Eyed at New York Theatre Workshop and Noura at The Old Globe, among several others. She recently appeared in Mike Mosallam’s critically acclaimed film Breaking Fast. Lameece is also an accomplished audiobook narrator having narrated Saudi Arabian author Manal Al-Sharif’s timely autobiography, Daring to Drive and most recently, The Magical Reality of Nadia, co-written by The Daily Show’s Bassem Youssef. As a playwright, she’s written various short plays produced in The New York Arab-American Comedy Festival; as well as Noor & Hadi Go to Hogwarts (Theater Breaking Through Barriers, Golden Thread Theater); and Nooha’s List, part of the compilation play, Motherhood Outloud (Hartford Stage, The Geffen and Primary Stages). Her full length play Food and Fadwa, 2011 recipient of the Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award, premiered off-Broadway at New York Theatre Workshop, a production she co-produced and starred in, and in which Variety magazine praised her performance as “stunning.” Food and Fadwa was a part of the Arab Voices Festival in both Abu Dhabi and Beirut and was published in the anthology “Contemporary Plays By Women of Color,” second edition. She also co-wrote the feature film Abe, directed by Fernando Grostein Andrade, and starring Stranger Things’ Noah Schnapp, which premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. She is currently developing her solo play, A Good Day to Me, Not to You, a fictionalized story based on her time living in a woman’s rooming house run by nuns. Lameece is a member of AEA and SAG-AFTRA. 2016 NYFA Finalist in Playwriting/Screenwriting. www.lameeceissaq.com
(she/her/hers) is a Brooklyn-based actor. She recently graduated from Boston University with a BFA in acting, and has since been in a short film, performed in a new work at The Tank NYC and has been cast as Hermia in an upcoming production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She is very thankful to be in her first performance with WP Theater and sends all her friends and family much love! www.JackieRomankow.com
is a Cuban-American Theatre Artist based in New York City and is ecstatic to be working with WP Theater. She has primarily worked at The Public Theater on the New York Shakespeare Festival and Under The Radar Theatre Festival. She has also worked with a range of company’s including, Tectonic Theater Project, Chelsea Factory and Boston Playwrights Theater. She received her BFA in Theater Arts: Design & Production from Boston University. She is an Associate Artist at Sanguine Theatre Company and currently freelances as a Stage Manager and Dramaturg.
is a New York City based Lighting Designer. As a Lighting Designer and Assistant she has worked at MTC, Roundabout, The Signature, La Mama Experimental Theater, The Vineyard Theatre, and Stella Adler. She is a proud graduate of Barnard College at Columbia University, and the Juilliard Apprenticeship Program. More info about Liz and her work can be found at lizlights.com.
(SOUND DESIGN & EDITING, he/they) is a New York based interdisciplinary artist. The first generation Trinidadian American aims to give breath to Black people in storytelling and beyond. Interested in the discoveries of what it means to honor a life, Chris is charged to cultivate the exploration of alternate ways to exist, and in turn alternate ways to create. As a dramaturg, visual artist, and designer Chris has serviced devised works and theatrical productions in collaboration with National Black Theater, The Movement Theater Company, Criminal Queerness Festival, The Bushwick Starr, The Atlantic, Long Wharf Theater, Theater for a New Audience., and Playwrights Horizons. Notable sound design credits include Derek Fordjour’s Fly Away at Petzel Gallery, Jeremy O. Harris’s Black Exhibition at Bushwick Starr, and Neptune at Dixon Place and The Brooklyn Museum. Wingspace 2019-2020 Sound Design Fellow. www.darbassiedesign.com
(VIBE CONTRIBUTOR, she/her) is a New York-based theater, screen, and voiceover actress. She is also a casting director for indie animation. Journey is currently earning her BFA in Drama at New York University; she is very grateful for the creative outlet and sisterhood that viBeCompany has provided her with.
(VIBE CONTRIBUTOR, she/her) was born and raised in Far Rockaway, Queens. The second oldest of five girls, Laylanie is currently a health monitor at an after-school Beacon program called Police Athletic League on Far Rockaway’s peninsula, having worked at this program for about six years. It has been a journey of personal growth while experiencing all the age groups. She has a deep desire to put energy, time and love into my community by mentoring and guiding youth and teaching them academics and building relationships to help mold them into their best selves. Laylanie is grateful for being a part of a program that serves the community; gives our young people a safe place to be and have fun. As a part of viBeCompany; she continues to learn the power of speaking her truth no matter how raw it can be. This creative writing and theatre production journey has made her realize just how beautiful, powerful, and authentic art is.
(VIBE CONTRIBUTOR, she/her) was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY. She attended Junior High School 302 and earned a passion for theatre arts. It started in sixth grade, when she auditioned for the drama club’s musical production of “Grease”. She earned a small role with less than 5 lines and a dance number. This didn’t stop her from pursuing this love for acting, and she eventually worked up to larger roles by the eighth grade. As far as her high school career, Kziana went to a local high school that didn’t focus on the arts due to the fear of not being good enough for acting schools and also not being able to afford them. However, whenever the opportunity came up to perform, she did just that. She participated in almost all of the school’s winter talent shows and either sang or danced with a group of friends. When she applied to college, the love of acting was still there and she majored in Theatre and received her Associates Degree from BMCC in 2018. After taking a semester off, she missed being on stage, as she didn’t take up many opportunities at her first college. She then attended York College in 2019, and is now pursing her Bachelor’s Degree. She will be obtaining it this summer after completing all of her elective courses. She has performed at York College as the lead role in David Mamet’s “Oleanna” in Fall 2019, that helped her score a nomination for a scholarship by the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. In 2020, she directed and stage managed two plays for her school’s theatre department. Currently, Kziana is working with a group of friends in writing, acting, and producing their original short film debuting this summer. She is also a performer for ViBe Theater Experience which helps tap into her creative, poetic side that she never pursued. She’s always working on her craft and hopes to win an Oscar for all of her hard work one day.
(VIBE CONTRIBUTOR, she/her) – Michelan “Mi·I·Mi” Le’Monier is an artist, administrator, and facilitator whose growth stems from giving as much into her environment and community as she receives. She found viBe Theater Experience in the year of 2012 and performed her first viBe show as a participant of the viBeSolos program. From there, she took part in many viBe performances and in the summer of 2017, became a dedicated employee; growing from intern to Administrative Apprentice in 2018. Gradually becoming the Operations Assistant in 2019, and becoming the first Programs Manager of viBe in 2020, and is now very proud to be viBe’s Operations Director.
(NARRATION; she/her) is a classically trained actress who has performed in theaters all over the country as well as in films and television. She is an ensemble member of the award-winning Sojourn Theatre. Soneela is an award-winning narrator with 250+ titles. She also narrates articles for publications including The New York Times and The New Yorker. She’s passionate about lifting up South Asian and Black experiences as part of her work both in and out of the studio. She has garnered 16 Earphone awards, and Audie and SOVAS nominations. Her audiobooks have been featured in Best Audiobooks lists by AudioFile Magazine (2016, 2019, 2020) and The Washington Post (2018, 2020). Most recently, Soneela was awarded the Golden Voice Lifetime Achievement Honor by AudioFile magazine.
(VIBE CONTRIBUTOR, she/her) Alexandria “Meena” Russell is a mother, author, playwright, and co-founder of Alstroemeria Studios. As a single mother, one of her many passions is speaking out for the stigmas that follow black and brown single mothers. When Meena’s not binge watching Blue’s Clues and You with her daughter, she’s either finding inspiration for her next piece, enjoying music from her favorite k-pop artists, or gaming. She’s currently working on her first book of poetry ‘Second Place, Half Best’.
(she/her) founded Monica Bill Barnes & Company in 1997 with a collection of solos that could be performed anywhere. The company has performed in venues ranging from Upright Citizen’s Brigade to The Sydney Opera House, and has been presented in more than 100 cities. Some of the company’s past projects include The Museum Workout, a guided exercise tour of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Happy Hour, an immersive office party dance show that ran as a recurring event for 3 years in New York City, Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host, a show that combines radio and dance in collaboration with Ira Glass that toured over 25 cities in America and abroad. Current collaborations between Barnes and Robbie Saenz de Viteri include The Running Show, Days Go By, Keep Moving the company’s first online show created in collaboration with 16 dancers from Hunter College in 2020, and It’s 3:07 Again which premiered online April 2021.
(he/him) began working in theater as an audio script assistant to Anna Deveare Smith. He has created performances and toured productions throughout the world with the Obie Award winning Nature Theater of Oklahoma. He has created, produced, and performed in Happy Hour, The Museum Workout, One Night Only, Days Go By, The Running Show, Keep Moving and It’s 3:07 Again with Monica Bill Barnes & Company. Some of his other favorite projects include producing This American Life Episode 528 “The Radio Drama Episode” live on stage at BAM, directing Rachel Bonds’s Michael & Edie, and creating and performing The Spiritual Life of Modern America, a collaboration in Norway based on the experiences of foreigners traveling in America Today.
(he/him) has been a Costumier for over 20 years. Danté graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology in 2005. In 2006 Danté joined the wardrobe department for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre. In Autumn 2015 he relocated to London, England where he joined the Costume Department at The Royal Opera House and the Royal Ballet in 2016. In 2017 Danté became the resident Costume Designer and Wardrobe Manager for Ballet Central and the Central School of Ballet. When Danté returned to the United States in 2018 he joined the Costuming department at the Washington National Opera in DC before returning to Alvin Ailey in the Autumn of 2019 where he works currently.Dante’s design credits include “Uptown”, “Moan”, “Odetta”and “Testament” by choreographer Matthew Rushing; “Get On The Good Foot” at Showtime at the Apollo with Philadanco; “Chemical Water” by Yannick Lebrun; “Cinderella” by Christopher Gable; “Sleeping Beauty” by Matthew Bourne for Ballet Central; “Swan Lake” and “Romeo and Juliet” by Jenna Lee.
(she/her) is a Brooklyn based administrator, production associate and dance artist who has been working with MBB&CO in a variety of roles since 2017! As an administrative and production assistant Elizabeth has supported Happy Hour, One Night Only, The Museum Workout, and The Running Show, both in NYC and on tour. As associate producer Elizabeth has supported the company’s site specific work Days Go By, and digital shows Keep Moving, and It’s 3:07 Again. Elizabeth loves bringing the company’s work to new audiences be them near, far, or via the computer screen. As a performer Elizabeth creates worlds for distinct characters to inhabit. Her collaboration “once she lived on a 4th floor walkup” was part of the 2018 All Over Westbeth Site Specific Festival. Elizabeth holds a BA in Dance and English from Kenyon College.
(she/her) is a performer, movement director, and rehearsal director based in NYC. She has rehearsal directed and performed in Monica Bill Barnes & Company’s productions of The Running Show, Day’s Go By, Keep Moving, & It’s 3:07pm Again. She has also worked alongside Barnes as associate choreographer/dancer on the feature film Little Women (dir. Greta Gerwig). Flannery is the movement director of The Reality Show: NYU (created by Elizabeth Swados), staging performances at the Barclays Center, Radio City Music Hall, and NYU’s Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. She was as the assistant choreographer to Sam Pinkleton on the Broadway musical Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 and the associate choreographer to Sonya Tayeh for Sing Street on Broadway. Born and raised in San Diego, Flannery got her BA in World Arts and Cultures from UCLA. She is thrilled to be dancing with MBB & Co.!
(she/her) is a Brooklyn-based dance artist, administrator, and creative producer. Born and raised in NYC, Mykel studied dance at Alvin Ailey for 14 years, where she was a fellowship student, and graduated from Dartmouth College with a BA in Film & Media Studies in 2016. Mykel re-engaged with movement through intensives with Earl Mosley’s Institute of the Arts, American Dance Festival, and Movement Invention Project, and has performed works by Bill T. Jones, Merce Cunningham, Robert Battle, and John Heginbotham, among others. She joined Dance Heginbotham in 2018 and has since performed in the Off-Broadway revival of Oklahoma! (dir. Daniel Fish, St. Ann’s Warehouse) and The Master and Form (Brendan Fernandes, Whitney Museum of American Art) at the Whitney Biennial. Mykel performed with MBB&Co for the first time in 2019 with Days Go By, It’s 3:07 Again virtually in April 2021, and is thrilled to return to live performance with the company at the WP Theater this summer! mykelmarainairne.com
(she/her) is a queer lighting designer, organizer and producer residing on unceded Wappinger and Munsee Lenape land. Barbara is invested in creating design-forward live events that prioritize generosity, equity, representation, and collaboration. Working nationally and internationally, Barbara collaboratively creates intimate and explosive lighting environments for new plays, opera and dance, aiming to unearth the human condition and consciousness of our surroundings. Barbara received Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel Award nominations for her lighting of the immersive sci-fi folk concert, Rags Parkland Sings the Songs of the Future (Ars Nova). She has designed for several OBIE award winning plays including Dance Nation (Playwrights Horizons), Great Lakes… (New Georges/WP Theater) and Grimly Handsome (minor theater). She served as the General Manager of OBIE Award-winning 13P from 2008-2012. In 2016, in addition to being a Target Margin Institute Fellow, The Interval named Barbara a Woman to Watch. Barbara holds a B.A. from Fordham University and an M.F.A in Lighting Design from NYU. Proud member of USA Local 829. New Georges Affiliated Artist.
(she/her) is a choreographer, performer, dance educator, and administrator. She has danced in Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and across the US. Indah earned a BFA in dance from Purchase College Conservatory of Dance in 2008 and an MFA in dance from NYU Tisch School of the Arts in 2014. As a choreographer, Indah Walsh was awarded a Creative Engagement Grant from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council in 2017. In 2020, Indah worked with Monica Bill Barnes and Company as Web Designer and Creative Consultant for Keep Moving, and performed in their online work It’s 3:07 Again in 2021. Indah was an Adjunct Instructor at NYU Tisch School of the Arts from 2019-2021 and was nominated for the David Payne Carter Award for Teaching Excellence in 2021. She is now a Visiting Assistant Arts Professor at NYU Tisch Department of Dance.
photo Credit: Corey Haynes
(she/her) is a set and production designer based in New York who is passionate about new forms of storytelling. She has worked across a variety of media including theatre, film, installation, AR and VR. She holds a BA, MFA and Ph.D. from Beijing’s Central Academy of Drama and is the first Mainland Chinese student to graduate from NYU Tisch Design for Stage & Film (MFA). Aoshuang is the Artist-In-Residence of NYU Future Reality Lab. Recent work includes multi-user XR experience Mary and the Monster (Assistant Art Director), The Outpost (Art Director) at NYU Future Reality Lab. The Empty Place, The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, Recall and Alteration at NYU/Tisch, Global Gay at LA MAMA, and Patience at Corkscrew Theater Festival. She staged a ring screen performance of Hamlet Mirror at the 11th Shanghai Biennale Exhibition. www.aoshuangzhang.com
